"Is everything in order?" Warlord spoke through voice com. He was currently moving rapidly through Icathia's streets. Beside him was Satan Slayer, Valentine, a priest, a ranger and an assassin. These players were the top of the devastator super guild. Backed by their own powerful companies, they obtained the best gears and hogged the best EXP areas.
And now, the promise form Dave will give them access to the Underworld. Giving them more advantage over the other players of the competing guilds.
This mere expedition to the underworld will give the Devastators an edge. For that, every level gained is a huge advantage, and they want to take advantage whenever they could in a game where being in the lead was all that matters. Or so they believed.
"Yes, Guild-Master," Jeffery's voice sounded to the party through the voice chat. "The device is planted. Skelly didn't suspect a thing. Also, what did you mean by keeping him occupied?" Jeffery asked.
"The less you know the better. Now be ready. The A teams will start the assault first thing on the morrow."
"Isn't Dave's friend with the A-team? he could notify him." Jeffery asked.
"As I said the less you know the better, and Blaster himself isn't aware of all we do. No be ready, and contact me the moment your Mecha is off-cooldown."
"Right boss," Jeffery replied and hung up.
"You sure you want to pull this?" Valentine asked.
"Yeah, this is the way things should be. I don't care if he is the most famous person on the game or the highest level. I only care about the reputation of our Guild. Once we pull this off, Skelly's rocketing fame will stop. His invincibility will dissipate."
"But if you fail…" Valentine decided that he didn't need to finish the sentence.
"I won't, I have everything planned out, you'll see Val." Warlord replied.
"If you say so man, I'm backing you no matter what," Valentine replied.
"I know you got my back, now let's do this," Warlord finished his words the moment he appeared at the teleportation gate.
The Doom Knight Kis'Shtiengbrah, also known as Mr. Skeletal, or Skelly by the masses stood tall in the middle of the plaza.
The NPC guards and church paladins were looking at him eerily, but they decided it was to their best interest that they should remain unmoving and appear unaggressive to the domineering Doom Knight.
The mere presence of such a 'Monster' was enough to send all the NPCs into a frightening escape away from him. But thanks to the now regular appearance of Kis'Shtiengbrah, the NPCs regarded him with mild fear and interest.
The undead, however, looked annoyed. He was tapping his metallic boot on the ground, making an eerie sound that resounded through the plaza. For some reason, most of the people around were quiet, making the tapping sound like the beatings of a metallic heart.
"You guys know I have better stuff to do right?" Dave said.
"Sorry for taking a while, we had to gather the team. So ready?" Valentine spoke.
"Yeah, here," Dave said, pulling out five teleportation scrolls for the third Raid Zone, The Pharaoh's Tomb.
Valentine took the scrolls and gave each of the players next to him one.
"Let's go then," Dave said.
Dave noticed the players fidgeting with the scrolls in their hands, while the priest of the party was gazing intently at the codes and patterns of the scroll.
"You first, we need you to be there so you can stop the other undead from attacking us on sight," the assassin of the party spoke up.
Dave tilted his head and said, "Right. Oh, one more thing, you can't copy those scrolls. Unless you're an undead with a Grandmaster Scroll Creation skill," Dave said in a grin aimed at the priest.
He had realized that the priest was trying to copy the codes to recreate the scrolls, but as Dave had mentioned, unless he was undead, he won't be able to copy them. Making those scrolls useless unless they were used alongside Dave.
The priest frowned but hid his expression almost immediately.
Dave laughed and tore his own scroll.
He appeared in the Underworld, right in front of the teleportation gate of the Pharaoh's Tomb Raid zone.
The teleportation gate was placed in the middle of a great square. Where the black and gold pyramid oversaw the whole city.
The walls of the city rose high, and the dark buildings gave an eerie look to the entire thing. Not to mention, the numerous undead that roamed about.
Around the gate, stood more than a dozen Death Knights. Mere guards to the gate. But their singular power was enough to cause problems to any of the Devastators players.
Soon, Warlord appeared, followed by Valentine and the rest of the players.
"Welcome to our humble abode!" Dave said with both hands opened wide.
The undead around Dave were grimly staring at the players, their hostile gazes sent shivers down their spines. But they were not foolish enough to show weakness.
"Where are we going to grind?" Warlord asked.
"Well, I can take you outside, there are a few Manticors strewn about under the sand. They give a decent amount of EXP." Dave said.
"We saw the manticores in your videos, they're not much, what about a dungeon, or the next Raid Zone?" the assassin spoke.
"Oh, I forgot that I shared the fourth raid zone with the CCN, if you want to grind there, then I won't mind, but do you think you can survive the area on your own?" Dave asked.
"We can handle ourselves." Warlord said, "Just take us out of the city," he added.
"Alright then, follow me and stay close, please," Dave said and led the way.
The undead gave way for Dave, but they didn't change their behavior toward the party, their grim and tens reaction to them only heightened the more the players moved toward the city gate.
"I advise that you guys should move faster," Dave said.
"We didn't agree to this! These undead are looking for a fight!" Warlord said, his voice fused with anger.
"I'm sorry bud, but these aren't my undead. I don't control them. And our deal was only to get you safely to the Forth Raid Zone, so far I'm perfectly within the contract terms."
Dave said and hastened his pacing.
"Shit, keep moving!" Warlord said and followed after Dave.
The undead began moving toward the fleeing humans. While Dave was moving ahead, he had a grin on his face. He was thanking Dagla for making it difficult for the players to stay within the city and interact with anything or anyone.
The fewer advantages he gave them the better for him.
Soon after, the party was at the front gate, Dave asked the knights to open the gate, while making a visible effort in making the whole situation look urgent.
Once the gate was open, Dave turned to the players and said, "Now, enjoy your grinding," Dave said.
The party looked at Dave questioningly but they didn't talk back, they grouped up and headed east.
After half an hour walk, the party stopped and turned, Dave was following behind them like a shadow.
"What the fuck man?!" Warlord shouted.
Dave had both hands behind his head, and was smiling, "What?"
"Stop following us!" Warlord said.
"I'm not following you, I'm just taking a stroll," Dave said innocently.
Warlord frowned, but Valentine calmed him down with a pat on the shoulder, "We're a bit uneasy with you behind us, can you please leave?"
"Sorry bruh, but I'm just taking casual strolls. And you don't have to worry about me backstabbing you guys, I'm not the sort to do that, you know. I even think that people who go around the back of others are the lowest of the low, you know."
Warlord frowned. Was there a possibility that Dave had known about their assault to the east? It shouldn't be. The information was tightly locked down, there could be no leak.
"Boss, you want me to take him down?" the assassin boldly declared.
But before Warlord could even reprimand the assassin, Dave took the opportunity to summon Tiny.
"Bring out the knights," Dave said. and immediately, the Slime transformed into its massive hulking size and began summoning sarcophagi in mid-air. A hundred Death Knight emerged from the boxes and dropped to the ground.
They stood facing the five players.
"What is the meaning of this?" Warlord said.
"Easy big shot, I'm just feeling a bit of fear for my life you know, it's hard to level up nowadays, and your assassin just said he wanted to kill me. These are my bodyguards," Dave said grinning.
The obvious threat from Dave's show of power was enough to shut the assassin up and make him regret ever antagonizing Dave.
Now the pressure Dave had on the party increased a hundred times over.
"We don't want any trouble man, just leave us be."
"Don't worry, don't worry," Dave said calmly, "I won't do anything to ruin your fun. Go ahead, enjoy yourselves, as I said, I'm just taking a casual stroll, now with a hundred Death Knights."
The hideous smile never faded from Dave's face, giving the players more unease.
"let's just ignore him, if he pulls anything we can show the world how Kis'Shtiengbrah acts." Satan Slayer spoke.
Dave shrugged at the man.
The party moved forward toward the east, they looked over their shoulders every now and then, to see the pesky, unrelenting, smiling and shameless draugr following closely behind.
As it appeared to them, the draugr was not going to give them peace while they did their EXP grind.